we? who? wii u!
It seems life is intent on always proving me wrong. I thought the Wii was an awful name for a gaming console, but that didn’t really seem to matter.
But now I work retail, and I can explain to you exactly why the Wii U is an AWFUL name.
Reason One
Nintendo has focused more on the controller than the console. I had to wade through several announcement stories to even FIND a picture of the new console. Gimmicky controls are great and wonderful sugary rainbows and all, but when you’re pushing a new console on how it’s your new HD console to appeal to the core gamer, at some point, YOU SHOULD SHUT THE HELL UP ABOUT YOUR CONTROLLER. And this controller focus is bad because of…
Reason Two
The name is not even close to dissimilar from the Wii. It is literally one letter off. They are doing this for branding reasons, I’m sure, thinking they’ll easily get the Wii’s user base to adopt it, but here’s the thing: Nintendo is the brand. Nintendo is what people will hear and go out and buy this thing over. You could name it the Nintendo Sunset and people would still buy it.
I shudder when I think about the headache inducing conversations I’m going to have to endure. I already have to explain the differences between the DS Lite, DSi, DSi XL, and the 3DS to nearly all my customers—now I’m going to have to explain why Wii games work in their Wii U but their Wii U games don’t work in their Wii. Or why the Wii U controller doesn’t work with the Wii. I heartily expect most people to come in trying to get the new Wii U controller and freaking out when I explain they have to buy an entire console.
You may think I’m kidding. I have customers come to me with their printer manual, essentially just because they don’t know how to find the section that tells them what frickin’ printer ink is compatible. The general consumer doesn’t know anything. But that’s not their fault or their problem. It’s not their burden to explain what a product is or does. That’s up to the manufacturer, the marketers. The consumer’s only duty is to consume, and the manufacturer has no right to complain if the consumer doesn’t want to because they were confused or misled.
Reason Three
The Wii U isn’t even an accurate name. It’s not! The Wii U is supposed to be more powerful (slightly) than the PS3 and 360. Which means it’s fairly significantly more powerful than the Wii. Adding just one letter makes it sound like a slight upgrade (coughDSicough). This is comparable to if they’d just named the Wii the Super Gamecube, except that actually would have been acceptable, because the Wii was not much more powerful. Its biggest change was the controller.
Summation
The Nintendo Wii U will probably be a good console, but I’m going to avoid helping anyone that wants one lest my head explode from trying to explain shit to them.
Now if you excuse me, I have to go trademark Nintendo Sunset so I can make bank in case Nintendo is watching and feels inspired.
